Timeline for Why does the Department of Mysteries keep prophecies?
Current License: CC BY-SA 3.0
15 events
| when toggle format | what | by | license | comment | |
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| Feb 16, 2017 at 7:29 | vote | accept | Invoker | ||
| Feb 15, 2017 at 18:18 | comment | added | Jeroen Mostert | @Jason: a self-aggrandizing prophecy? I like that twist on the old trope. :-) | |
| Feb 15, 2017 at 18:12 | comment | added | Jason | @JeroenMostert that's not entirely true - it could be that the prophecy appears to be inconsequential, but the knowledge of that prophecy plays an important role in making sure that the prophecy itself was, in fact, crucial. | |
| Feb 15, 2017 at 14:29 | comment | added | Jeroen Mostert | ...of course, your comment that a prophecy "might have appeared insignificant, but in hindsight turned out to be crucial" rather illustrates the entire problem with prophecies -- a prophecy that's only crucial in hindsight has turned out to be useless. But then application is not what the DoM is concerned with -- maybe studying the wording allows them to build models that allow better a priori understanding of prophecies, or cross-referencing multiple prophecies related to a major event, or even distinguishing authors. (What? The prophecies come from somewhere, why not someone?) | |
| Feb 15, 2017 at 11:28 | comment | added | Invoker | But you got a point that it could be a very important piece of future. | |
| Feb 15, 2017 at 10:58 | comment | added | Invoker | What bothers me is that most of the prophecies are not fulfilled. And I think it's very hard for them to choose the most accurate fate they can obtain with those prophecies. | |
| Feb 15, 2017 at 10:38 | comment | added | Daniel | I imagine that it's not that they can only be physically "retrieved by those whom they are about", but that the prophecy is imperceptible unless you're the subject. Like it's an encrypted message that sounds like white noise, and you have the private key. They all would look identical until you come into contact with your target. | |
| Feb 15, 2017 at 0:34 | comment | added | David Z | And in fact, the main point of this answer applies equally well to basic science research in the real world. You never really know what is going to be useful in the future. So the Department of Mysteries takes after real scientific research organizations in that respect. | |
| Feb 14, 2017 at 22:12 | comment | added | Pharap | Indeed, the Department of Mysteries is effectively the Ministry of Magic's equivalent of a scientific research centre full of theoretical physicists and other boffins. One man's prophecy is another's higgs boson hypothesis. | |
| Feb 14, 2017 at 17:56 | comment | added | ejrb | @gabe3886 surely the fact that these objects may only be retrieved by those whom they are about is interesting and worthy of study/experiment :) | |
| Feb 14, 2017 at 15:48 | comment | added | gabe3886 | I shall ask this as a separate question then | |
| Feb 14, 2017 at 15:43 | comment | added | Rand al'Thor♦ | @gabe3886 Hmm, good question. Perhaps they have special magic they can use for that, which Voldemort and co couldn't get their hands on? | |
| Feb 14, 2017 at 15:41 | comment | added | gabe3886 | How could they study the prophecies if they can only be retrieved by those whom they are about? | |
| Feb 14, 2017 at 13:52 | history | edited | Rand al'Thor♦ | CC BY-SA 3.0 |
added 1211 characters in body
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| Feb 14, 2017 at 13:45 | history | answered | Rand al'Thor♦ | CC BY-SA 3.0 |